Street Hunt No16 – Street Photography in Istanbul, Turkey

Introduction

3 weeks ago when I returned from this amazing Street Hunt in Istanbul I wrote a post in which I shared the experiences I had during my stay in that amazing city. I was in Istanbul for 5 days and each day was special for its own reasons. Even though I have shared nearly all experiences from that trip, I deliberately left out details about the actual Street Hunt day. I thought that it would be much better to include the details of the day we filmed the Street Hunt in this post.

This Street Hunt was Street Hunt number 16 and it was sponsored by our amazing friends at COSYSPEED. COSYSPEED has supported www.streethunters.net for the second time and we are ever grateful. Plans for future collaborations exist and will be announced in due time, so stay tuned for more exotic trips in the future! Thanks COSYSPEED.

The day we filmed the Street Hunt #16 in Istanbul

Thomas of COSYSPEED, Kerem Nasipoglu and myself all met in the Yeni Cami square at around 10:30 in the morning. Unfortunately for us, even though it was warm and humid, the sky was cloudy and we didn’t have the famous Istanbul light at our disposal. This didn’t discourage us though. It was time to film and we were really excited and couldn’t wait to get started. So, we recorded the small introduction inside the Yeni Cami Mosque outer walls to protect the sound of the video from any annoying sounds of the wind and then headed out!

Once outside, we made some photos in the Yeni Cami square, walked to the side of the huge mosque and then we headed back to where we started and from there headed into the Market. In contrast to the mosque square the market was very busy and people kept on bumping into each other. So there we got to experience photographing at close quarters and grabbing shots instinctively. Things were fast paced and we immersed ourselves into the vibe of the scene – the people, the sounds, and the smells of the streets. Once we had traversed through the part of the market that Kerem had planned for us, we continued to the Silversmiths of Istanbul. Apparently, all Silversmiths in the city work in one very old and quite big building. So we visited that building which which was split over 2 levels – each floor had workshops, one next to the other. The atmosphere there was awesome, I really enjoyed the feeling that place gave me. We shot plenty of photos while at the Silversmiths and we also got the chance to visit one of the workshops and to take photos up close of the Silversmith while he was at work. It was a smashing experience I will remember for ever.

Soon after we left the Silversmiths we met up with F.D. Walker, a.k.a. Forrest Walker, a.k.a Shooterfiles.com. Our small group grew to 4 Street Hunters!

We continued with Kerem’s plan and the next stop on our list was the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar was indeed grand! I couldn’t perceive its size even though we were there for more than 1 hour. While there we spotted some interesting characters, made some cool images and enjoyed the amazing things on display.

But we had so many more things to photograph and quite a few cool places left to visit. Besides it was only noon and we still had all the day ahead of us! So Kerem and F.D. had a small conference and decided it was time to visit the places in Istanbul that tourists usually don’t go to. So, we left the Grand Bazaar and headed towards the Fatih area and specifically for the area of Fatih that is home to Syrian refugees, Kurds and other people seeking refuge in Istanbul. Personally I had never visited a place like this before and it made a huge impression on me. I felt really sorry about the conditions in which the people lived in, especially the children, but I was pleased to see that the kids didn’t mind. They played and enjoyed themselves amongst the ruins, laughing and running around the place full of excitement. Oh the joys of childhood…

We stayed in that area for quite a while since it offered interesting material and characters for Street Photography. We met people, we connected. It was a nice experience. By the time we left it was already lunch time and we felt like we needed some food in order to continue walking through the Istanbul – a city that I can reveal is full of crazy big hills! So if you visit, you better have trainers on, otherwise you will regret it.

After lunch we walked to Balat, a beautiful neighbourhood famous for its colourful buildings and characters. We spent at least a couple of hours taking photos there, meeting people and having fun. The people of Balat are welcoming, happy and very kind. They don’t mind having their photos taken – or at least the majority don’t mind. Balat was a great place. If you visit Istanbul, you should make sure you go there. I recommend having a local in your party or at least someone that speaks Turkish so you can enjoy the full experience, as almost no-one in this area of the city speaks English or French.

The Balat Street Photography came to an end and we walked to the shore and all the way to Galata Bridge. Our goal at the time was to take the ferry from Kadikoy Eminonu, move over to the Asian part of Istanbul and continue shooting, but we arrived 1 hour early and we had to do something to pass the time. So we recorded video and shot photos and by the time we hopped on to the Ferry to cross the Bosporos we noticed that our Action Cam was out of juice. We had enough battery left for about 5 more minutes of recording, so we landed in Asia, recorded the ending of our Street Hunt and that was that. The Street Hunt #16 in Istanbul was over and we had made a collection of fantastic memories – memories that we are sharing with you dear Readers today in our 52 minute video!

My Gear

In this Street Hunt video I use my all time favourite camera, my APS-C Fujifilm X-Pro1 with various settings depending on the light. I enjoyed using zone focusing but also auto focus. I was pleasantly surprised by the way the X-Pro1 got accurate and fast focusing even in moderate light and amongst large crowds. The latest firmware has transformed this camera. The lens I used was the XF18mm by Fujifilm that is equivalent to 27mm full frame. So it is quite wide, just what I need for getting close! Before the end of the Street Hunt I popped my flash on as well to take advantage of the artificial light of the EF-X20.

It is time to order in. Get some pizzas, burgers or pop corn, grab your favourite beverage and relax and enjoy the fun! Today’s sponsored Street Hunt is as long as a short film!

As always, in addition to the video I have made a collection of all the photos I shot, and I am also sharing with you photos made and shared by Kerem and Forrest. Thank you so much guys for showing me around and letting us share your work!

The Collection Of Images

If you want to check out each photo I have uploaded every image I shot in a dedicated Dropbox Album called Street Hunt 16.

Spyros Papaspyropoulos is passionate about Photography, especially Street Photography. Because of that passion he considers himself a Street Photographer. If you would like to see his work you can also visit his Street Hunters Profile. He is co-founder of Street Hunters.

8 COMMENTS

After 3 minutes I was like “What ? 52 minutes ? Way too long !”. And when you said you were running out of batteries for filming, I was like “What ? Already ?” Very interesting video as usual ! Thanks for sharing. SSAKS 😉

Oh man… I totally enjoyed this Spyros! Next take a 2nd video camera… 🙂 Can’t wait for the ROME video. Kerem & FD were awesome companions to show you different sides of Istanbul… Thumbs up to Cosyspeed as well!

Hello Phil and thank you very much for stopping by and for your kind comment. The cord I use is the Interfit STR131 Multi-fit TTL cord that is compatible with Canon, Nikon and Fujifilm cameras. I am very happy with it.Stay Sharp & Keep Shooting!